I thought my son was close to crawling months ago. He slowly gets a tiny bit closer every day. Up on his knees and hands right now, he rocks back and forth and then collapses forward, propelling him far enough to reach the toy.

He has no real example of how to crawl. I crawl around him, but I assume another kid would be better. So he really is just creating movement in a direction without a model.

Yet he is still creating crawling, and he is so close now.

Makes me realize how deep the grind can be, how many times I might have quit before a huge breakthrough. Because the moment he starts crawling, the game changes drastically.

You get to spend weeks flopping around, making tiny incremental progress, and then BOOM.

He also seems to like doing this one random floppy move that isn't in the right direction at all, but he enjoys it. And I bet he's going to stop doing it as soon as he starts crawling. (I'm sitting here wondering what comparable move I make in my meditation, but I won't get to know until later.)

I watch him and think that even though I don't know what my crawling looks like, something small is happening in the right direction if I show up.

personal growth and perseverance

Crawling towards enlightenment: